Posts Tagged ‘Glen Campbell’

With 18 gold and three platinum albums, and a three-time Emmy winning primetime variety show, Andy Williams was a force to be reckoned with during the ’60s and ’70s. Williams launched his career with six recordings for an X Records, and RCA Victor label, in 1953. A year later he made his first of many appearances on Tonight Starring Steve Allen which led to his signing to Cadence Records and his first hits. By the mid ’60s, Williams was recording for Columbia and had purchased the Cadence master tape catalog which also included recordings by the Everly Brothers and the Chordettes. He soon launched Barnaby Records which had hits with Ray Stevens’ “Everything Is Beautiful” and “The Streak.” He also signed a young Jimmy Buffett to his first record deal at Barnaby. Meanwhile, Williams was quickly becoming the most popular pop vocalist of his era. At one point during the ’60s, he was awarded the most expensive recording contract in history. As a solo performer with 18 gold records, his award count was eclipsed by only Elvis Presley, Johnny Mathis, and Frank Sinatra at the time. Williams’ many hits over the years included “Born Free,” “Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You,” “(Where Do I Begin) Love Story,” “Butterfly,” and “Can’t Get Used To Losing You.” The Andy Williams Show, which ran between 1962 and 1971, was one of the most popular variety shows of all time. It played host to most of the biggest names in show business, and it’s semi-annual Christmas specials set the standard. And with eight Christmas albums and a huge hit with “It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year,” Williams became known around the world as Mr. Christmas. And although he was considered a “square” by the counter culture, Williams was one of the few major stars who was very vocal against the Nixon Administration’s attempts to deport John Lennon during the early ’70s. In May of 1992, Williams opened the Moon River Theater in Branson, Missouri. Hosting performers like Glen Campbell, Ann-Margret, Rich Little and David Copperfield, the theater became one of the most popular venues in the city. Andy Williams was 84 when he passed away on September 25, 2012. He had been suffering from bladder cancer.

Billy Strange was a much-respected guitarist, songwriter, and arranger who made an indelible mark on pop music as one of the top session players in Los Angeles during the 1960s. And as a songwriter, he was no slouch either. Born in Long Beach, California, Strange was just 5 years old when he performed on a local radio station – reportedly winning a yodel contest. Roughly ten years later, he was given his first guitar, and within two years, he was on the road. During the mid ’60s, Strange found himself as part of a collective of L.A. studio musicians known as the Wrecking Crew, who would go down in history as the players on some of the most important pop, rock, and country records of the era. Most famously, Strange played on landmark recordings by the Beach Boys (Pet Sounds), Nat King Cole, Nancy Sinatra, Willie Nelson, and Elvis Presley (whose “A Little Less Conversation” was co-written by Strange. Others who recorded Strange-penned songs include Chubby Checker, the Champs, Hank Snow, and Glen Campbell. In the early ’70s, Strange moved to Nashville where he co-owned and ran the Sinatra’s publishing company. Billy Strange was 81 when he passed away on February 22, 2012.

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1. Dropkick Murphys / Going Out In Style / Born & Bred
Sure, I’m a sucker for Celtic punk, but DKM out-drinks and out-fights the rest with this hoppy gem. It’s the life and death of an Irish immigrant told in 46 minutes. A vocal visit from Bruce Springsteen doesn’t hurt either.

2. Social Distortion / Hard Times And Nursery Rhymes / EpitaphSocial D may be 25 years into it, but Hard Times shows Mike Ness still gives a shit. The songs continue to be about escaping a dreary day with a hot dame in your cool car, but the punk has been buffed out with some twangy melodies and a touch of blues and rockabilly. It’s high octane, it’s go!

3. Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings / Soul Time! / Daptone
Released as a Black Vinyl Friday exclusive, I expected this to be a non-cohesive slap-together of b-sides, etc, but damn if this isn’t the funkiest album they’ve come out with yet! As much as I love SJ+DK albums, they tend to leave me longing for a live show. Soul Time! does a better job at capturing that vibe.

5. Big Harp / White Hat / Saddle Creek
Wow! This one snuck out of nowhere and bit me in the ass. Equal parts hipster lounge and honky-tonk saloon converge behind a voice that can only be described as chocolate dipped in whiskey. The ghosts of Nick Cave and Townes swim through the soft melodies and yarn-spinning lyrics that populate White Heat.

6. The Civil Wars / Barton Hollow / Sensibility
I was lucky enough to catch their first TV appearance on Leno back in January and have been hooked ever since. They share harmonies in that eerie way when identical twins share pain.

7. Imelda May / Mayhem! / Decca
Fun retro-swing / rockabilly pop from Dublin. If this style of music experiences a renaissance like blue-eyed soul has over the past couple of years, Imelda May will be its Adele.

8. Hanni el Khatib / Will The Guns Come Out / Innovative LeisureAn amalgamation of dirty blues, R&B, garage, punk and doo wop, blast out of Hanni el Khatib’s vintage Silvertone guitar and Nicky Fleming-Yaryan’s drum kit that sounds like one of those kid sets taken over by a Keith Moon-type pounder. Fans of the Wolfmother or the Black Keys take note!

9. Glen Campbell/ Ghost On The Canvas / Surf DogA beautifully heart-breaking final album from a musical genius who knows his days (or at least mental agility) are numbered. Unlike Johnny Cash’s swan song releases, Ghost On The Canvas is a more subtle goodbye as he walks deeper into the challenges of Alzheimer’s.

10. Charles Bradley/ No Time For Dreaming / DaptoneDon’t be fooled, No Time For Dreaming was not recorded in 1968. Like label mate, Sharon Jones, Bradley offers up a retro soul vibe that sounds so authentic, you can almost feel the sweat. My SXSW highlight this year was watching Bradley turn an audience of indie rock hipsters who were only there early for the headlining act into believers.

11. Garland Jeffreys / The King Of The In Between / Luna Park
New York City’s other great ’70s rock poet returns with his first album in thirteen years and proves once again that more people need to know who he is.

12. Wild Flag/ Wild Flag / Merge
An indie rock all-star girl group delivers a debut album that rocks harder than most of their male counterparts.

13. Girl In A Coma/ Exits & All The Rest / Blackheart
All-female punk trio proves why Joan Jett signed them to her Blackheart label. With influences firmly planted on their sleeves, GIAC share their love for the Smiths, punk, new wave, and of course, the Runaways.

14. Lykke Li/ Wounded Rhymes / Atlantic
Good Lord, this album swaggers! Drum ‘n bass plays nice with garage-psych organs. “Get Some” is one of the best, if not most tribal songs of the year.

15. The Beach Boys/ The Smile Sessions / Capitol
Yes it’s technically a “new” album. And it remarkably feels brand new even though we’ve heard most of these songs before.

17. Noah And The Whale/ Last Night On Earth / Mercury
While contemporaries like Arcade Fire draw inspiration from ’70s rock, this one feels fueled more by New Wave with its synths and drum machine. But then “Tonight’s The Kind Of Night” busts out with a Roy Bittan by way of Bob Seger piano backdrop.

18. Stephen Brower & The Silent Majority/ SB/SM / Pioneers Of The New WestSB/SM has a sound so raw and immediate, you can’t help but draw a dotted line to pre-Geffen Guns ‘n Roses by way of Tom Waits. Equal parts fuzz, metal, punk, folk and outlaw country make up this tasty stew. The live-in-studio vibe is punctuated by the cough that kicks off “Ajax Mountain.”

19. R.E.M / Collapse Into Now / Warner Bros.
I love when R.E.M. lets it rock, and Collapse Into Now does it better than any of their albums in recent memory. Accelerate was a decent attempt, but it appears to have only set the stage for this one. I probably wouldn’t have said this 7 or 8 years ago, but I’m sorry to see them go.

20. The Horrible Crows/ Elsie / Side One Dummy
A short folky detour for Gaslight Anthem’s Brian Fallon finds him tapping into his inner-Nick Cave. The E-Street anthem blast might be in the back seat for this one, but the heart is still there.

21. Megadeth / Th1rt3en / Roadrunner
I haven’t cared about Megadeth since 1992’s Countdown To Distinction, but Th1rt3en came out of nowhere and floored me like those albums when Metallica gets it right.

22. Christian McBride Big Band/ The Good Feeling / Mack Avenue
I don’t know why, but 2011 will go down as the year that I figured out jazz. And a huge part of that is The Good Feeling. Sure it’s big band, but I’ll be damned if Christian McBride isn’t a rock star!

24. The Vaccines/ What Did You Expect From The Vaccines? / Columbia
I am such a sucker for simple sing-along pop melodies, but these beauties are drenched in so much noise that the Jesus and Mary Chain instantly comes to mind. And that’s a good thing.

25. The Jayhawks/ Mockingbird Time / Rounder
I’m kind of embarrassed to say, but it took me nearly 25 years, to finally understand all the hubbub about the Jayhawks! Simply put, this album is beautiful.

26. John Hiatt/ Dirty Jeans And Mudslide Dreams / New West
This is easily John Hiatt’s best album since 2000’s Crossing Muddy Waters. It feels thicker and more sonic than I can remember a Hiatt album sounding. It’s nice that his personal reflection of 9/11, “When New York Had Her Heart Broke,” – written immediately after he personally witnessed the attack while in NYC – has found a home on this album.

27. White Denim/ D / Downtown
I’m not sure I’d go as far as calling White Denim a jam band, particularly since not one song here clocks in at more than five minutes, but all the classic elements of the genre shine through on D. Plenty of psych-guitar noodling, frenetic drum slapping, and chord changes, but compacted for those of us on a tight schedule.

28. Gang Of Four/ Content / Yep Roc
With Content, Gang Of Four prove they still matter 35 years later. It might not be Entertainment!, but you just can’t deny Andy Gill’s angular guitar attack, which is as strong as ever. I hope it’s not another 15 years until their next.

29. Adele / 21 / XL
What everyone else said.

30. The Mahones/ The Black Irish / True North
Oh look, I’ve book-ended my Top 30 with Celtic punk. Where Dropkick Murphys blow the roof off an Irish wake with fist-pumping anthems, the Mahones seem more a drunken pirate ship house-band. Plenty of nods to the Pogues throughout.

Jack Nitzsche was a respected arranger, composer, producer and session musician who was involved in many of the greatest west coast pop recordings of the ’60s and ’70s. His first significant contribution to pop music came in 1955 when he co-wrote “Needles And Pins” with Sonny Bono. The song was a hit for Jackie DeShannon and was later recorded by the Searchers, Cher and the Ramones. By the early ’60s, Nitzsche was working as an arranger for Phil Spector, orchestrating the celebrated “wall of sound” on hits like Ike & Tina Turner’s “River Deep Mountain High.” Nitzsche was also part of the famed Wrecking Crew, a group of studio musicians that included Glen Campbell, Leon Russell, and Hal Blaine. Much like their Motown counterparts, the Funk Brothers, the Wrecking Crew were the faceless band behind many ’60s pop hits coming out of Los Angeles. They could be heard on records by the likes of the Monkees and the Beach Boys. Nitzsche also worked on classic recordings by the Rolling Stones, Neil Young, Buffalo Springfield, Graham Parker and Willy DeVille to name a few. During the ’70s, Nitzsche created the music for several motion pictures including One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Starman, 9-1/2 Weeks, and An Officer And A Gentlemen, for which won the best song Oscar for “Up Where We Belong.” Jack Nitzsche died of cardiac arrest at the age of 63.

John Hartford was a beloved folk singer-songwriter who was also proficient in several stringed instruments. He is probably mostly associated with the banjo and fiddle. Hartford mastered those instruments while still in his mid teens, and by the time he was in college, he had already built a name for himself throughout the St. Louis music scene. Hartford released his first album, Looks At Life, on RCA Records in 1966. A year later, he put out its follow-up album, which included the song, “Gentle On My Mind.” Soon made into a pop hit by Glen Campbell, the tune earned Hartford two Grammys. It has also been covered by Elvis Presley, R.E.M., Johnny Cash, Lucinda Williams, and Dean Martin, to name a few. During the ’70s, Hartford released a string of albums that would lay the foundation for the “newgrass” movement to follow – a more electrifying form of bluegrass, sometimes even incorporating drums. His 1976, Mark Twang earned Hartford another Grammy while his contributions to the O Brother, Where Art Thou soundtrack of 2000 landed him yet another. Hartford battled Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma for the better part of the the last 20 years of his life, finally forcing him to retire from the road in 2001. It wasn’t long after that he died as a result of the disease on June 4, 2001. He was 63.